WezV - building an electric with the laser cutter.

TTony

How long did the various processes take, and was that *all* done on the laser cutter, or any routering needed?

Just interested to compare with my CNC experience.

WezV

TTony said:

How long did the various processes take, and was that *all* done on the laser cutter, or any routering needed?

Just interested to compare with my CNC experience.

Everything done on the Bosse  Cedar has been done with a router, using templates made by the laser.  

The templates took about 2 hours to cut, going slow with extra passes to ensure they cut as cleanly as possible. Obviously a few hours designing and tweaking too. 

I did use the laser to engrave the body blank  with the various templates and center line, which made alignment much easier.  that was a quick engrave job so only took 5 minutes

Routing was fairly quick because all the templates were ready to go and the body was well marked out, about an hour and a half even with the tricky recess. That includes pre-drilling the cavities

The maple bits have been done solely with the laser.  it cuts really well so took about 40 minutes to cut and engrave it, but I think it would have benefitted from slowing down the engraving step to make it a little deeper


It's probably not much faster than making all those templates by hand,  but it is a hell of a lot more accurate and obviously repeatable

WezV

Fretboard.

I have used the laser to engrave fretslots and outline, as well as routing out some inlay slots.

This took about 25 minutes all in.  The laser did a good job on the rosewood so the fretslots and outline are engraved 2mm deep, inlay routes are 3.5mm deep.  

I suppose I could cut accurate thickness fret slots, but for now I am just using it to give a good deeply scribed line for the fret saw.  I think I could have easily cut the whole thing out too.

I went with a 24.5" scale and 24 frets.  Mainly to do something I don't have a slotting jig for.



I then spent a few minutes cutting some maple bits from the top offcut to fill those slots.

WezV

Reclaimed mahogany neck blank


The issue with reclaimed wood... it has a big mahogany dowel on it and I have no idea how deep it goes



I wasn't lucky, its still there when rough cut, but only just, and doesn't go all the way through.   I need to re do the headplate anyway so will go with a slightly shorter headstock design 




Which gets us here

TTony

WezV said:

The templates took about 2 hours to cut, going slow with extra passes to ensure they cut as cleanly as possible. Obviously a few hours designing and tweaking too. 

I found a standard router to be far more effective at clearing out bulk than the CNC - it's a bigger cutter, so that'd make sense.

I'm wondering whether the sweet spot might be to use the CNC to cut the first few mm of the cavity, enough to then get a bearing guided router cutter in there to do the rest.  That'd save the time of making and affixing the templates (and space of storing them all!).

Same experience as you re the fine/detailed work though - CNC is great for repeatedly cutting really accurate pieces and all the intricate stuff that you'd struggle (or worry) trying to do freehand with a router type tool.

Sporky

TTony said:

I found a standard router to be far more effective at clearing out bulk than the CNC - it's a bigger cutter, so that'd make sense.

I think that depends - mine will run a 50mm long 12mm bit at speeds (by which I mean feed rates) I wouldn't risk with a router by hand. I used to have to slow it down because the previous chip extractor couldn't keep up. 

Jez6345789

Not a moan but are there any pictures in this thread, as I seem to be seeing none if any from this forum. Which is weird if there are none fine but seems largely the same in classified here are the pictures and I see people comment but see nothing. 

Is it a glitch or me

TTony

Jez6345789 said:

Is it a glitch or me

It's you @Jez6345789 ;

There's another discussion (I think in the Help & Feedback) section re photo visibility issues.

Jez6345789

thanks thought it might be 
Should of gone to specsavers lol

TTony

Good points @Sporky - my CNC is set up conservatively, and I don't have any bits that big either.

Sporky

I think the limiting factors are usually the rigidity of the machine (mine could be usefully upgraded in that regard) and the spindle power - mine is the same model 1400W router as I have for general use.

Definitely some stuff Mr V is doing that would be tricky on mine though. 

Jez6345789

Turning off the VPN sorted it weird now its all makes so much more sense pictures are great

WezV

I can't see my own pics from my work computer, I've been posted them from my phone - hosted on Imgur.


I would love a CNC for the proper wood work once day.  My expectations from the laser was never that it would replace a lot of router work or things a CNC or normal router would be useful for.

I wanted  it mainly for template making, marking out and inlay, which is does really well  with the materials and thicknesses I have chosen - working well within it's limitations.  It's amazing how quickly this style of laser is becoming a  viable option for home use.  Mine is already the old model, with a new version available that is 3-4 times more powerful and includes a bigger work area as standard

If I had a CNC router, I think a laser head would be a good addition to it.   Sadly that doesn't work the other way as the laser frame and motors are nowhere near strong enough to carry a router

Sporky

I am very impressed with how much you can do with the laser. 

TTony

WezV said:

If I had a CNC router, I think a laser head would be a good addition to it.  

Now, that's an interesting thought that I hadn't had ...

WezV

Pickup covers.

I already had the facings, cut from the same wood as the top and therefore perfectly grain matched.

I decided to engrave the back of these to fit nicely on a p90 covers.  Whilst I was at it I also cut some bits to make these into solid maple covers.  The rings were cut with grain going the opp8osite way for strength



Stuck them together and cleaned up a bit 

Checking fit... need to clean out the insides a little, but looking good



And in the body 

victorludorum

I think you might be getting some enquiries about those p90 covers soon.

WezV

They probably wouldn't be a good retrofit option as I built them thicker than a normal P90 case for additional strength, so they are chunkier than a standard soapbar cover

That's fine here where I can match them exactly to the route, but I doubt they would fit easily in most P90 guitars

Wazmeister

Wez, you are so talented mate, ans i love your threads.

cheers !

Strangefan

The laser cutter is probably one of the most important things I have ever bought, it can be used in literally everything, leather main for me,